Category Archives: e-books

I am not goingto complain about the cold this year. At all. That being said, I havegotten two colds so far this fall. Maybe it’s like the recession andit was just the same one that turned into a double-dip. That,however, was my own fault. I will not blame the weather. Afterthose sweltering days of summer, I welcome the impending snow stormswith welcome arms. I’m built like a polar bear, so that helps. Allyou skin-and-bones types are on your own.

If I will complainabout anything it is that I don’t have an open fire by which to readby books. That’s something I have never done in my life. I’ve neverlived anywhere that had a fireplace, at least not a functioning one.Wood stoves, sure, but not a fireplace with a quaint mantlepiecepropping up stiffly-orchestrated family photos and darts trophies.Someday, perhaps. Until then, I’ll settle for that TV channel thatcomes on in December with the crackling fire and incessant Christmascarols.

Heading intowinter, here are some of the books I’ll be reading sans fireplace:

Darkness Falling byPeter Crowther –Angry Robot Books is only acouple years old now, but they’ve already got quite an impressivelooking library. One of their most recent releases is this horrortale about a small town becoming possessed one person at a time.Sounds creepy as heck and ought to be a fun, spooky read.

The First Husband byLaura Dave -Fridays on Twitter, Iusually tweet what my #fridayreads are for that week. I had no ideathere was a book giveaway attached, so imagine my surprise when I wasannounced as a winner. The book isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but I’llgive it a chance then hand it off to one of the ladies in the family.Guaranteed someone will enjoy it.

TheHundred Thousand Kingdomsby N.K. Jemisin– Kat over at No PageLeft Behind sent me a paperback of this much-heralded fantasynovel. A fantasy involving kings and gods and a power struggle thatthreatens everything. Neat. It’s the first book in a trilogy, so ifit’s good then that means I have yet another series to get hooked on.

TheNew Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn andTheGentling Box byLisa Mannetti– Lisa sent me signedcopies of these two books, which is wonderful as I covet her work. Inow have two signed copies of TheGentling Box: myoriginal Dark Hart Press edition from 2008 and now the ShadowfallPublications edition from last year. I shall hoard them both.

TheNeighborhood byKelli Owen -I won this signed chapbook from DreadfulTales (formerly Paperback Horror). I’ve yet to read Kelli’s work, but PatDreadful and the gang approve, and I’ve heard her guest spots on GregHall’s The Funky Werepig and she is a hoot. Plus, Brian Keene put herover as a writer to watch, so there’s that too.

Demons byJohn Skipp (editor) -A big thanks to Darkeva’s DarkDelights for sending me a copy of this very cool lookinganthology. This book is brand new, but I literally hadn’t heard of ituntil Darkeva told me about it. I’m a sucker for a good themedanthology, and this one ought to be good. When the contributingauthors is as diverse as Charles Beaumont, Neil Gaiman, BentleyLittle, and Alethea Kontis, it’s gottabe good.

So there’s the new crop added to my reading pile. What did you snag this past month?

Is there a tablet that can effectively mimic e-ink technology? I ask this, because that seems to be the thing that could turn the iPad and other tablets into the device for reading e-books. If you’ve ever tried to read e-books on an LCD/LED screen, you’ve probably felt some eye strain after an extended period. Plus, there’s the insufferable glare on the screen when you try to read outside. While tablets, with their oodles of apps, are a great new toy for this decade, they just aren’t the ideal reading device. But, if there was some way to turn that tablet into a Kindle-like e-reader, then that would be a real game-changer, I wager.

Surely, in an age that offers up some of the most unnecessary, ridiculous techno-toys we dare imagine–we have breakdancing robots, for crying out loud–there must be one developer out there who can crack this nut.

Bah, until that day comes, here are the e-books I’ve added to my reading pile:

The Spectral Press Chapbook Series 1-3– Spectral Press has a series of chapbooks out and I’ve got these three for review by Gary McMahon, Gary Fry, and Cate Gardner respectively. Each story is about twenty-thirty pages, making them very easy reads, and I’ll likely devour them all in a single evening. I haven’t read anything from the two Gary’s yet, but Cate’s got chops, so I’m really looking forward to Nowhere Hall.

Theatre of Curious Acts by Cate Gardner – Cate’s on a roll this year, as this novella is due for release in December through Hadley Rille Books. I’ve read her short fiction on line, as well with the impressive collection Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits, so I’m eager to read a lengthier story.

Miranda by John R. Little – September 7th was Buy A Book Day, so I bought a book. My wish list is a mile long, but I did remember having this novella on my wish list for quite some time. And now that Cemetery Dance has it in Kindle form, I figured it was time to buy it.

Hell and Gone by Duane Swierczynski – I loved–loved!—Swierczynski’s Fun and Games. It’s still the front runner for my favorite read of 2011. One book that has a good shot at knocking it down a spot is its sequel. The first book left just enough room for a sequel, so it’ll be interesting to see how Duane tries to top himself in this series.

Cuckoo by Richard Wright – This novel was originally published in 2002, but Richard is re-releasing it himself as an e-book, with a paperback release slated for sometime this month. He sent me a review copy, and considering he’s finagled some praise from noteworthy authors, I’m optimistic about this sinister sounding story.

A while back, I had an e-mail conversation with independent author, Brad Convissar, over the whole e-books topic. Following that, I invited him to write a guest post and share his opinions with everyone else. He was kind enough to oblige, and below is the result. Enjoy.

Bradley Convissar on Self-Publishing, Story Length, and Pricing:

I was offered the chance by Gef to write a post on the nature of self-published books in regard to length and pricing. So, here we go.

First off, as a new author who plans to self publish, you may ask yourself, what should I write? There are several things to consider:

Short stories – I think every self-published author should publish a handful of short stories for free. Why? Well, they take minimal time to do so you can get them out quickly. And more importantly, i believe they give potential readers a chance to learn about you as a writer with minimal cost and time. Sure, people can download samples, which may give them a taste of your style. But as a reader, I like to know if a new author I am considering has the ability to write a whole story. I want to know if an author can not only structure a story well, but also end it well.

Novellas vs novels – This is a purely arbitrary cut off, but I am going to define a novella as anything between 15,000 words and 60,000 words. Anything below, a short story, anything about a novel. Now, I am an advocate for the first time author to start work on novellas first. Why? As a new author, you are already behind the eight-ball. Dozens of established authors have huge back catalogues of previously published books. This gives them a huge library they can put out, as well as an established reading base. New authors can get lost when they have one novel out there while established authors who have been traditionally published can tout a dozen books. The more books you have, the more potential exposure. Sure, you can spend six months to a year writing an 80,000 word novel. But while you’re doing that, the established authors are tossing out a new book every 3-4 months and other self-published authors are publishing 2-4 novellas of 15,000-30,000 words a year. Sure, quality counts, but you need to be found. And readers like to have choices. My three different novellas have a better chance of catching the eye of a new reader than your one novel. Sure, I want to write a novel. And I will. But I want to establish a reader base first. I want to capture their attention with short stories, reel them in with novellas, then, when I have enough in my net, hit them on the head with a novel.

Now, what should you write? This is obviously a loaded question: write what you want. But I’ve struggled with this question. We are a television culture. We love our series and we love our characters. Now, I love my stand alone novels. Most of the horror I read are stand alone novels. But if you browse the best seller list, it is littered with series featuring recurring characters, whether it be an FBI agent or a police officer or CIA agent or pathologist, etc. Hell, many of my favorite books are series: Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, The Nightside by Simon Green, the Pendergast books by Lincoln and Child, the Penn cage books by Greg Iles and the Lincoln Rhyme books by Jeff Deaver. Even if a particular book/story is just good, not great, I’ll snatch up the next book as soon as its out because I love the characters. So this leaves me in a bind: I like writing stand alone novels. I have dozens of stories. But if you’re first book isn’t great, some of your readers may decide not to get the next book. But, as I said earlier, if you have a series with a compelling lead character, that reader is more likely to come back.

So where does this leave me? Right now, I am finishing up 2 stand-alone novellas. After that, I’ll probably start an open-ended long novella, short novel series, each book 50,000-60,000 words, and mix in a stand alone novella or short story collection along the way. And then in 2013, get back to work on my novel. That’s my plan. I want the exposure so I want to have a dozen stand alone books before I commit a full year to a 100,000 word novel.

And this brings me to my last topic, a very contentious topic: price: this is tough, and there are two thoughts on the matter. On one side you have the $.99 camp. The philosophy here is that people are more willing to spend $.99 on an unknown author than $2.99. That readers are more often to buy a book on whim if it costs less than a dollar. That to get exposure, you need to price cheap at the beginning. The $2.99 camp philosophy says that people equate cost with quality, and if you only price at $.99, people are going to assume it is crap. It’s tough; you have to sell 6 books at $.99 to make the same you would make at selling one book at $2.99. But you most likely will sell more at the lower price point, and while you may not make as much off the bat, the more people who read it, the more people who will talk about it.

I take a mixed approach:

Under 10,000 words- I never sell anything that is under 10,000 words. I have plenty of friends and know other writers who sell single short stories for $.99, but I won’t. This is a personal decision. If I want to sell short stories, I will bunch them into a 10,000-15,000 word collection

10,000-25,000 words- This is my $.99 price point.

25,000-50,000 words- This is my $1.99 price point

Over 50,000 words- For me, this is the $2.99 price point

That being said, if/when I get around to doing a novella series, book one will ALWAYS be $.99. You need to get people to read the first book, and that’s how you do it. Remember, impulse buying is huge. Each subsequent book will probably cost $.99 for a month or two, and then go up to $2.99. That way my early fans, the diehard fans, get a break for being loyal.

One last thing on pricing and word count: I wish more authors were up front on there description pages with word count. I don’t want page count. Page count means nothing in the digital age. Some people think 250 words is a page, but if you’ve ever counted the average number of words on a printed page, it is 300-450 words. I give word counts for all of my books. Hell, if it is a short story collection, I give word count for the individual stories. I believe in full disclosure. I believe readers should know how many words they are getting for their money. Nothing pisses people of more than spending $3-5 and getting 15,000 words.

There are a few reasons I enjoy reading novellas. One reason is that they’re just long enough to read off a computer screen without that feeling my eyeballs are going to melt–especially since I spend so much time in a day looking at a computer screen anyway. Another reason is that they are idyllic for a quiet evening, or if you’re going to be someplace doing next to nothing for an hour or two (hospital waiting rooms spring to mind).

And another added bonus is that novellas are a great length for testing out new authors. Like that novella by Tom Piccirilli I reviewed a couple days ago, Every Shallow Cut. If you’ve never read his work before, that is a great place to start, because it’s a superb story and will take you no time at all to read it.

Some folks love those giant moose-stunner novels. You know the ones. The kind of books, especially the hardcovers, that feel like you’re reading stone tablets. They’re not my cup of tea, though they’d probably be more palatable with an e-reader. But, for me, I’m turning into a novella lover more and more. I downloaded a couple of them this past month, and I’ve found they sneak their way up the reading pile quicker than novel length works.

Let’s take a look:

Gun by Ray Banks – Right after the Fourth of July weekend, I started seeing a few authors on Twitter hyping the availability of a free novella called Gun. Free is in my price range, so I got myself a copy from Ray. I get the feeling it’s about a gun, but I could be wrong.

Jinn Nation by Caroline Barnard-Smith – Caroline asked if I’d care to take part in her blog tour, which will be swinging by this blog in mid-August, as well as review her new dark fantasy novel. I’m still bogged down in review commitments, but she was generous enough to offer a review copy anyway. It may be 2012 by the time I read it, though.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes – I was trolling through the Kindle Store last week and stumbled across Lauren’s novel, which was being promoted by Amazon’s The Big Deal promotion. Only 99 cents at the time for an award-winning title. Eff yeah.

Die Lover Die by Lee Goldberg – Lee sent me one of his novelettes for review. It’s a ten thousand word powder keg by the looks of it, so it ought to make for a fun evening some time late in the summer. It’s associated with the Top Suspense group I’ve seen Lee and other authors promoting this year. Not a bad way to get the word out.

The Egyptian by Layton Green – Green’s previous novel, The Summoner, was one of those novels I didn’t expect to enjoy quite as much as I did. So, Layton has provided me with a review copy of its sequel. The review for this one ought to appear in late August, presumably, but don’t hold me to that.

Peter the Wolf by Zoe E. Whitten – Zoe seems like the kind of author who enjoys quirk. She’s written zombie erotica, even a pair of novellas through Belfire Press called The Life and Death of a Sex Doll. Not too sure what this dark fantasy is about, but I’ll bet there’s some quirk to it.

How about you? Do you have a preference on story length? Anything good that you’ve downloaded recently that you would recommend to a guy like me?

I was thinking of blogging about my summer reading list again this year, but it kind of seems redundant in a way since all you have to do is look at these Chasing Tale blog posts from the past couple of months to get an idea of what’s on my plate this summer. Here’s a hunt: A lot.

And despite my to-be-read pile achieving monolithic status, I still managed to acquire more e-books. More fuel for the fire that is my appetite for stories, I suppose. At this point, an e-reader is more of an inevitability than ever before. I’m resisting though, because the tactile experience of an actual book in my hands is so natural. Reading a book via my laptop is certainly more convenient than my ancient desktop PC, but there’s a small piece of the experience missing. I think it stems from the fact that I spend so much time reading other things on computers; like news, social networks, blogs, et cetera; it feels like there’s a saturation point at times for how much my eyes can tolerate staring at a computer screen. Would an e-reader be the difference maker in that regard?

Anyway, I ramble. Here are the e-books thrown on the pile:

Dust Devils by Roger Smith– Thanks to a heads up from Peter at The Man Eating Bookworm, I found out author Anthony Neil Smith had a special offer going on in mid-June. If you bought Dust Devils at its bargain price of $3.99, he’d throw in three of his own e-books for free. I had one of Anthony’s books on my wish list already, so I checked out what Roger had cooked up and it looked pretty good as well. So, I scooped it up and got four e-books for four bucks, which is the kind of thing that spoils a fella.

Choke On Your Lies is the one I had on my wish list after reading about it on Victor Gischler’s blog, so that was a nice get. Then there’s the novella he wrote with Gischler, which also sounds like it’ll be a good read. And a book I’ve since read some very positive reviews for, Yellow Medicine. If I enjoy it as much I think I’m going to, I’ll eventually have to hit the Kindle Store again and buy its newly released sequel, Hog Boggin’.

Birdwatching from Mars by Barry Napier and Luis Puig– Barry already writes novels, short stories, and even poetry. Now, with Luis Puig doing the artwork, he is writing graphic novels now. Nothing makes you feel like you’re standing still as a writer than seeing a workhorse like Barry tackling so many different projects. I’ve only just started into it, but I got the sense I was in for a treat from the very first page. I hate you, Barry.

Demon Squad: Resurrection by Tim Marquitz– I read and reviewed the first Demon Squad book, Armageddon Bound, in early 2010. I thought it was a fun, pulpy read with plenty of gun play and supernatural action. I’m hoping Resurrection can keep pace with that first book, even surpass it. I’ve read a couple reviews that tell me it does, so that’s good news.

The Blood Mesa (The Dead Man #5) by James Reasoner– The fifth installment of the Dead Man series is set for release in early July. I’m loving this series, and even ranked it among by ten favorite reads of the year so far over at Rosey’s Review. There may even be a little interview with James to coincide with my review of the book next week, so watch out for that.

Guarding the Healer by Gabriel Beyers – Gabriel contacted me right at the point when I became tentative about taking on any more review requests, considering the sheer amount of commitments I have already. But when I saw Barry Napier’s name credited as the cover artist, I figured I could at least throw this book on the pile and give it a chance in due time. I hate you, Barry.

Watch Me Die by Lee Goldberg– The co-creator of The Dead Man shot me an e-mail late in June with this e-book attached. It’s a re-release from 2005, and while I’m not in a hurry to read a Monk novel, I am interested to see what his original work outside the Dead Man has to offer.

The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey– This past month, Shaun was looking to get the word out on this novel, which I’ve read multiple positive reviews for in the last couple of years. I sent out a couple of signal boosts for him and snagged myself a review copy in the process. Goodness knows when I’ll get a chance to read it, but I appreciate having it in my library all the same and hope to get to it by year’s end.

And there you have it. An obscene amount of reading awaits me, stretching straight to Christmas I reckon. I think this is my cut-off point. I may buy an e-book now and again from the Kindle Store, but my review commitments have reached their limit. If anyone else sends a book my way in hopes of a review, they’re likely going to be waiting a long, long time. And just wait until the end of July when I blog about the physical books I won, bought, and had gifted to me.

That reminds me of a question I was bouncing around recently.

Do you find yourself buying more e-books than physical books nowadays? If so, what prompted that change?

The ol’ to-be-read pile exploded in the last couple months with review requests from various authors, agents, and the like. With the amount of reading on my plate through this summer, I was unable to offer everyone an actual time line on when to expect a review, but I will be working my way through each book.

The majority of them are e-books, since it’s such a relief on the purse strings when an author doesn’t have to pay shipping on one more physical book through the mail. I still prefer an actual book in my hands over the digital editions, but I am becoming more accustomed to reading e-books on my laptop. And, maybe one of these days I’ll actually get an e-reader, but that’s only likely if I either win a giveaway or one of them drops down to the $75 mark or so.

In any event, here are the latest e-books to get added to my reading list:

The Rift by R.J. Clark – “The Rift reads like a Tarantino script on steroids.” That’s a blurb from artist, Jeroen Ten Berge, who did the artwork for this book’s cover too. That’s worth giving it a chance, I think. Set in New Orleans with an inter-dimensional gateway to Hell? As if they didn’t have enough bulls— to deal with.

The Dogs of War by Bradley Convissar – I couldn’t resist giving this potentially brutal ghost story a chance. Why? Because it involves a dachshund. Yeah, you read that right. If an author can work a wiener dog into a scary story, I’m in.

Voice by Joseph Garraty – Stories about selling your soul are pretty common, and among them the rock star as the one doing the selling is fairly common in and of itself. Still, there’s always room for a new twist, so that’s what I’ll be looking for from this book.

The Dead Woman (Dead Man #4) by David McAfee – I have the latest iteration in the Dead Man novella series, which I’ll be reading and reviewing fairly soon. Actually, by the time I have this out, the fifth book in the series will probably set for release. It’s been a really good series thus far, and I have a sneaking suspicion this book will be no expection.

The Bad Wolf by Tim McGregor – Another detective novel, but it sounds like it’s straight up horror as two disparate detectives go after a serial killer and his pack of feral dogs. The killer thinks he’s a werewolf–and he’s probably right. This could be quite good.

Nightjack by Tom Piccirilli – It’s Piccirilli, so I do I really need to explain myself? I’ve got Every Shallow Cut sitting on my bookshelf, but when I grabbed this one from Crossroad Press, I figured I had to read it first.

Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century– My appetite for short fiction is insatiable. Despite not reviewing as much of it on this blog as the longer works, I still read a lot of it, and I thought I’d do up a review for this one this summer.

In the Mean Time by Paul G. Tremblay – As we approached the Apocalypse on May 21st, Chizine had a little Twitter contest asking folks to offer their predictions on how the world might really end. I wound up winning with a satirical little theory, and received a digital copy of Tremblay’s short story collection as the prize.

Top Suspense: 13 Classic Stories by 12 Masters of the Genre – I’ve been seeing this one promoted on Twitter for a while now. And since the table of contents has an impressive list of authors, and the thing was only gonna cost me 99 cents, I snagged myself a copy.

Well, these are the e-books that are going to be taking up the better part of my summer. Man, if I had the coin I’d splurge on one of those fandangled Kindles, but until they drop the price some more, I’ll settle for reading these on my jalopy of a laptop.

Have you hopped on the digital bandwagon yet? If not, what’s holding you back?

I may not have an e-reader, but that sure hasn’t stopped me from buying e-books lately. I read them on my laptop, which is a might better than when I first started reading e-books off my old desktop computer with that old CRT monitor–mothersmuckers, that was hard on the eyes! Nowadays, I use the Kindle for PC app, which is far and away better than reading a PDF. I also have the Nook for PC app installed for when I have EPUB files to read, but those are rare occurrences.

I prefer Amazon.com over BN.com because there’s just no hassle at all when I use gift cards to buy e-books there, as opposed to the miserable experience I had trying to redeem a gift card on B&N’s site. It didn’t take long to see why Amazon is dominating. I just wish there were e-readers besides the Kindle that could read their e-books, because I hate the proprietary nature of the device.

So, onto the book collecting. I bought a couple on the Kindle Store, got a couple review copies, and a couple freebies. I recently signed up as an Amazon associate too, so if you’re interested in purchasing any of these Kindle books, simply click on the title and authors name (Book Title by Author’s Name), and you’ll go straight to that book’s Amazon.com details page.

The Gospel of Bucky Dennis by J.R. Parks – Thanks to Paperback Horror, I caught wind of this e-book, which was free for a week. I have no idea who J.R. Parks is, what this book is about, but if it’s good enough for [name], then it’s good enough for me.

The Black God’s War by Moses Siregar III – John Ottinger, who runs a great sci-fi blog called Grasping for the Wind, pointed me towards a free novella being offered by the author, which acts as a precursor to an epic fantasy. I keep trying to warm up to epic fantasy, but so far I’ve found them to be too … well … epic. Perhaps a novella will charm me more than the 700 page novels that seem so popular in the genre.

Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski – This is another digital arc of a book due for release in early June, so expect my review to coincide with it. I heart crime fiction more and more, and it looks like Swierczynski could wind up being a go-to guy in the future. I’ve ordered his 2009 novel, Severance Package, which was heralded by quite a few whose recommendations I trust.

Blood Crimes (Book One) by Dave Zeltserman – My blog roll is crazy long, but one of the places I try to visit every week is The Man Eating Bookworm. Thanks to Peter and his blog, I discovered Dave Zeltserman was offering the first book in a new series on the Kindle Store until the end of May for only 99 cents. I read Zeltserman’s novel, The Caretaker of Lorne Field, earlier in the year, so I’m well aware of how talented a storyteller he is. With that in mind, a buck was nothing short of a bargain.